Countless racing fans around the world fell in love with the Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The roaring NASCAR stock car was an attraction in France among the field of sports prototypes and GT cars. Many were disappointed that the unique project only had the one-off Le Mans appearance on its schedule. NASCAR has now confirmed that the Camaro will appear at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The Garage 56 Camaro will make seven runs up the English estate’s hill climb over the weekend, with 2009 F1 champion Jenson Button and 2010 Le Mans winner Mike Rockenfeller taking turns behind the wheel. The duo teamed up with seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson at Le Mans and will now tackle the 1.16-mile long hill climb to celebrate NASCAR’s 75th anniversary.
Here’s the schedule for the Camaro’s runs at Goodwood:
- Thursday, July 13, 2:30 p.m. British Summer Time (BST) / 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) – Mike Rockenfeller
- Friday, July 14, 9:10 a.m. BST / 4:10 a.m. ET – Jenson Button
- Friday, July 14, 3:10 p.m. BST / 10:10 a.m. ET – Mike Rockenfeller
- Saturday, July 15, 8:30 a.m. BST / 3:30 a.m. ET – Mike Rockenfeller
- Saturday, July 15, 2:55 p.m. BST / 9:55 a.m. ET – Jenson Button
- Sunday, July 16, 9:15 a.m. BST / 4:15 a.m. ET – Mike Rockenfeller
- Sunday, July 16, 3:50 p.m. BST / 10:50 a.m. ET – Jenson Button
John Doonan, IMSA President and Garage 56 Program Manager, said in a release:
“The Garage 56 program has been an overwhelming success for us in further introducing motorsports fans from around the world to NASCAR. Taking the Garage 56 car to the Goodwood Festival of Speed gives us another chance to bring the world of stock cars to fans of a wide variety of motorsports.”
NASCAR seemingly created its own upswing in international popularity with its Garage 56 program and Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen winning the inaugural Chicago street race. And it doesn’t seem like the stock car racing organization has any plans on stopping.